Harnessing local innovation to address the global housing crisis
The focus of the report “Rethinking Housing Policies Harnessing local innovation to address the global housing crisis” is not so much on what local governments should do about housing, but rather on the structures, capacities and partnerships that allow LRGs to develop appropriate responses to the diverse needs of the citizens who are subject to their jurisdiction. The interest in the innovations detailed here therefore lies as much in how local governments were able to fund and support these projects as in what was actually done. Another key point of interest is how well these innovations met the needs and priorities of those living in poor quality housing in the areas under the jurisdiction of these LRGs.
This Report emphasizes the very large and important roles that LRGs have in addressing housing needs because their policies and practices influence so many of the inputs into housing, such as the availability of serviced land, trunk infrastructure and finance. In most countries, LRGs may play only relatively minor roles in defining national housing policies and programmes, yet they are still very influential when it comes to determining housing conditions and the scale and nature of new building work also tends to fall within their jurisdiction.
Reading Development 